On the Impact of LTE-U on Wi-Fi Performance

Considering the exponential increase in mobile data traffic taking place recently and expected to continue in the future, cost effective methods are essential to manage the load of their networks. This has been customarily achieved by offloading mobile traffic onto Wi-Fi networks due to their low cost and increasingly extensive deployment. However, operating LTE in the unlicensed spectrum has recently made mobile operators particularly interested due to the availability of the unlicensed spectrum. Using this technology, the unlicensed spectrum is directly utilized by LTE without the need to offload traffic to an alternative radio access technology like Wi-Fi. Nonetheless, the placement of LTE networks in the unlicensed band presents significant challenges to the performance of current and future Wi-Fi networks. This work examine how LTE and Wi-Fi coexist, the challenges to the process, and provides analysis on performance deterioration of Wi-Fi networks at LTE presence.